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Mexican professor visits WNMU

Bill Charland, Special to the Sun-News
Published 9:13 a.m. MT Sept. 28, 2015

Professor Guillermo Eduardo Labastida Blake of la Universidad de Occidente, Los Mochis, Mexico and Dr. Alexandra Neves, Director of the International Studies Office at Western New Mexico University meet in Miller Library to review plans for exchanging students between their institutions.(Photo: Phoebe Lawrence)

SILVER CITY — A venturesome professor from an outlying city on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, Guillermo Eduardo Labastida Blake spent the past week at Western New Mexico University, helping promote an ongoing exchange of students with his school.

Labastida Blake sent 100 students to WNMU last fall and is upbeat about their experience. “They loved Silver City,” he said. “It's a small, peaceful community. We share a lot of values with you.”
His own institution, Universidad de Occidente (“The University of the West”) enrolls about 10,000 students on seven campuses across the State of Sinaloa. Some 3,000 study on the main campus in Los Mochis, where Labastida Blake teaches economics and finance. “UdeO,” as it's known, is a full-scale university, offering 18 undergraduate degrees in everything from computer systems to tourism administration, nursing to music. There are six master's degree programs, including clinical psychology; and three doctorates, in fields that include biotechnology.
Labastida Blake describes Los Mochis as a city of 250,000 with an economic base in agriculture and fishing. “But there is a gas pipeline coming in, all the way from Tucson,” he said, “and that will change the economy. We expect more industry, so we're trying to encourage more of our graduates to stay.” Perhaps fluency in English will be a useful skill in that new economy.
Asked how most Americans view Sinaloa, Labastida Blake admits they might associate the state with drug cartels.

“Chapo Guzman is a tragedy for us. But we intend to let people know that we are more than that. We have a lot of culture and a great atmosphere for business,” he said.
Dr. Alexandra Neves of the School of Education faculty at WNMU has taken on the additional role of Director of the International Studies Office. She will be the point person to send students from Western to UdeO and other overseas universities, making international exchange a two-way street. She understands this will not be a smooth road. “Nationally, only 3 percent of American students take courses abroad,” she said, “and here we've barely started promoting study abroad.
“Students always ask, 'Do they offer courses in English?'” In the case of the school in Los Mochis, the answer is: no. Everything is in Español, which may pose a special challenge for students at Western where the administration shut down the Spanish Department last year.
Yet, both educators remember times in their lives when they overcame the challenge of foreign languages. Coming from Mexico, Labastida Blake spent his freshman year of high school in Virginia, then completed an MBA program in the English language in Belgium. Neves came to the United States for doctoral studies from her native Brazil. She remembers it was an adjustment, finding herself in a new language 24/7. “But, before long when I went back home, I found myself missing the States.”
She said there is a great increase these days in scholarships for international study, especially for minority students such as Latinos. Her office can help students locate these opportunities.
“Go abroad, open your mind set,” Labastida Blake urges. “That's the whole purpose of study abroad. Learn from other people.”